With the recent announcement by Joni Mitchell that she has suffered with this psychosomatic issue for years, it is time once again to talk about echo-chambers, enabling communities and profiteers online and offline.

It's not that conspiracy theory profiteers are disappearing, far from it. Social media has made it easier than ever to make a straw man out of the 24 hour news cycle for those who believe in an all-encompassing conspiracy. Meanwhile, their friends and family trying to convince them otherwise has much the opposite effect.

Written by Derek Hawkins (Washington Post) A Florida woman who claimed the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School was a hoax was sentenced Wednesday to five months in prison for … Continue reading Sandy Hook hoaxer gets prison time for threatening 6-year-old victim’s father

I know a fair amount about conspiracy theories. When I was growing up, my father would regularly allude to any number of possible culprits behind the assassination of President John … Continue reading Getting Specific: Founded and Unfounded Conspiracy Theories and Why it Matters Now.

By Brian Tashman (Right Wing Watch) In recent days a report from Washington D.C.’s Fox affiliate on the death of Democratic National Committee staffer Seth Rich has dominated the conservative … Continue reading Fox’s Seth Rich Conspiracy Theory Falls Apart: ‘Investigator’ Admits He Has No Evidence

By JAMES DOUBEK (NPR) People are prank calling President Trump’s new office to report illegal “criminal aliens” — just not the type of “aliens” President Trump had in mind when he … Continue reading People Are Reporting Criminal (Space) Aliens To New ICE Hotline

Originally posted by Yahoo7 News Sham miracle healer Belle Gibson is touting the remarkable diet regime similar to the one she said cured her of a brain tumour but also … Continue reading Cancer faker Belle Gibson trumpets the miracle workings of a new herbal-fasting diet

About

The subject of conspiracy theories is fascinating and troubling to me, as well as it should be to you. The vast majority of people in America believe in some unfounded conspirative belief; some way of seeing the events of the past or present that puts some person or persons in direct and deliberate blame for said events through covert means.

Conspirative thinking is not just an American issue. Cultures throughout the world adopt a views of their neighboring tribes, countries, and religious groups as conspiring against them or to blame for their own misfortunes.In this sense, conspiracy theories can be seen as a modern form of tribal distrust (in the anthropological sense). The unfortunate fact that people still widely adhere to this way of seeing the ‘other’ as conniving and untrustworthy leads to a lack of social cohesion in the evermore diverse cultural millieu that is America (there, of course, is my own sociological view).

“We’ve lost the fight for the algorithm. For 10 years, the conspiracy theorists have been writing on the web and they are over-represented. It’s because they are more eager to share their views than others, they publish more, they go up in the algorithm. It’s a fight for quality of information. And the fight right now, well, we’re losing it for good and bad reasons.”

Modern technology has made the variety and proliferation of conspiracy theories exponentially greater than it was before the advent of the Internet. This has posed one of the greatest challenges to Humanity. No one trusts anyone and nothing positive can be accomplished in a world where every mass shooting is believed to be a ‘false flag’ sham and every disease a ‘man-made population control device’ all perpetrated by some secret cabal or shadow government. It may seem a harmless misgiving of human self-delusion, until old diseases come raging back due to the anti-vaccine movement or a majority vote in representatives that believe that Climate Change is a ‘hoax’ because it doesn’t fit their world view.

The goal here is to raise awareness of the various conspiracy theories, both the ones that have existed and those that are forming and beginning to affect people. To show up-to-date research regarding the psychology of conspiracy theorists, the social psychology of how such beliefs spread and resist the various voices that would lead believers away from conspirative thinking, and an ongoing news archive of stories that illustrate the scope of the issue.

It is my belief that every person alive has the potential to be sucked in to the conspirative mindset. It is important to promote critical thinking, fact-based information services and large-scale programs that help to stop radicalization and hate speech including the various racist and religiously-based conspiracy theories. The goal is no greater than the future of all Humanity.

Share this:

Like this:

One thought on “About”

So… You came across something which convinced you that Osama Bin Laden DID knock down three towers with two planes…? You realized that everything they say on the News is true? That people in power NEVER lie, and NEVER kill the innocent?